HEARTBREAKING NEWS: Unai Emery Part Ways With Aston villa As Two Prolific Icons Follow Him To…
TNT Sports pundits Martin Keown and Alan Hutton believe that Aston Villa are favourites to win the UEFA Conference League due to Unai Emery’s track record.
The Premier League club progressed into the quarter-finals of the competition after they cruised to a 4-0 win over Ajax at Villa Park on Thursday night.
Ollie Watkins grabbed the opening goal in the first half before he had to be substituted due to injury.
Leon Bailey doubled Villa’s lead on the hour mark before substitute Jhon Duran and Moussa Diaby struck late on to seal the emphatic win.
Speaking after the game, Keown and Hutton believe that Villa will consider themselves to be one of the frontrunners to win the competition.
“I remember being at games earlier on and I really thought they could do something special in this competition,” Hutton said on TNT Sports.
Hutton continued: “You saw what West Ham did last year and Roma as well. They won’t tell us this but they’ll genuinely believe they can go all the way.”
Emery has an excelled record in European competition as a manager.
The Spaniard guided Sevilla to three consecutive UEFA Europa League titles from 2014-16, before winning the same competition in 2021 with Villarreal after beating Arsenal in the semis and Manchester United in the final.
Keown added: “With Emery as your manager and you look at his track record, it’s quite frightening the amount of times he’s won European competitions. You could see that
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“You could see in his tactical approach, calmness of the team, the composure they had, you could see that comes from a manager that settled them in nicely.
“They controlled things beautifully tonight and I think it was really pleasing to see Duran getting that goal. Great for the squad.